Skip to content
The Historic New Orleans Collection

Giants of Jazz

A vibrant painting of a jazz musician playing a trumpet. The silhouette of the musician contrasts against a colorful, abstract background filled with dynamic strokes and splashes of red, yellow, and blue.

Giants of Jazz

Art Posters and Lithographs by Waldemar Świerzy from the Daguillard Collection

April 21 to December 30, 2017

533 Royal Street

Giants of Jazz: Art Posters and Lithographs by Waldemar Świerzy from the Daguillard Collection pays homage to African American titans of jazz and rhythm-and-blues, the 20th-century tradition of Polish poster art and the interplay of musical and visual art.

The display includes 17 larger-than-life works by Polish artist Waldemar Świerzy (1931–2013). Visitors will see renditions of King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, and Ray Charles as well as three studies for a portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a self-portrait by Świerzy and a poster for the 1988 Jazz Jamboree Festival in Warsaw, Poland.

HNOC acquired the posters, along with several other works by Świerzy, as part of a much larger and diverse acquisition from the prominent immunologist and collector Fritz Daguillard and his wife, Rita Daguillard.

2017 0003 4 000 o10
2017 0003 1 000 o10
2017 0003 7 000 o10
2017 0003 8 000 o10
2017 0003 10 000 o10
2017 0003 12 000 o10
2017 0003 15 001 o10
2017 0003 18 000 o10
2017 0003 16 000 o10

Related Stories

View More
First Draft

From the 19th Century to the Nine-Nine

First Draft

’Tis the Season . . . for Louisiana Holiday Music

Related Collection Highlights

View More
A vintage illustration of a woman in a long dress sitting on a rustic bench in a garden. She holds a patterned shawl and gazes upwards. The scene is surrounded by lush foliage and a woven fence, creating a peaceful, nostalgic atmosphere.

Les lys et les roses

A bound volume of eight pieces for piano and voice sheds light on the role of women in New Orleans’s 19th-century music scene.

A painting of a man wearing sunglasses, playing a conga drum. He appears focused and is depicted in shades of green and blue. The text Alfred Uganda Roberts is visible in the bottom left corner.

Uganda Roberts Tape Collection

The New Orleans percussionist's audio and video tape collection documents his decades-long career, his musical influences, landmark events in the city, and his family and daily life.

An elderly man stands in a dimly lit room holding a small blue and white bird in one hand. He is wearing a light-colored shirt and dark pants. Cardboard boxes are stacked in the background.

William Russell Jazz Collection

HNOC’s largest collection related to New Orleans jazz was the life’s work of this prolific collector, producer, historian, and photographer.

Related Virtual Exhibitions

View More
A vintage portrait of three women with wavy dark hair and bright smiles. They are dressed in light-colored clothes and have rosy cheeks. They are styled in an elegant, classic manner against a softly blurred backdrop.
Jazz

Shout, Sister, Shout!: The Boswell Sisters of New Orleans

Explore the musical legacy of New Orleans’s own Boswell Sisters, who where among the first stars of radio’s golden age.

A vintage black and white photo of a jazz band with various members, including musicians holding instruments like trumpets and drums. A sign reads Music Furnished by the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band. A group of people gather around, some seated on grass.
Jazz

New Orleans Medley: Sounds of the City

The music of New Orleans is the living product of dynamic cultural interactions played out over centuries in this diverse southern port city. 

Related Books

View More
Cover of a musical album titled French Baroque Music of New Orleans: Spiritual Songs from the Ursuline Convent (1736). The background is dark brown with a vintage texture, and the text is in white, aligned centrally.

French Baroque Music of New Orleans

edited by Alfred E. Lemmon
with essays in English by Jennifer Gipson, Andrew Justice, Alfred E. Lemmon, and Mark McKnight, and in French by Jean Duron

Stay Connected

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

1954 19 newton ring o6